Oleomargarine package and method of making



y 1951 w. E. DENiSON ETAL 2,553,513

OLEOMARGARINE PACKAGE AND METHOD .OF MAKiNG Filed Jan. 28, 1948 chm'oumo mcnms NVENTORS. W160i .5zf072e Patented May 15, 1951 OLEOMARGARINE PACKAGE AND METHOD OF MAKING I William E. Denison and Wilfred S. Stone, Chicago, Ill., assignors to Tammen and Denison, Inc., Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application January 28, 1948, Serial No. 4,868-

15 Claims.

This invention relates to a package for oleomargarine and to a method of making the same.

As to the method, thisapplication is acontinuation in part of the application of William E.

Denison, Serial No. 774,013, filed September 15,.

1947. As for the package itself, it constitutes an improvement or refinement of the packages shown in Serial Nos. 780,120, filed October 16, 1947, and 790,791, filed December 10, 1947, now Patent 2,529,837.

The general object of this invention is to provide a sealed oleomargarine package which holds a coloring berry or other coloring within a wall recess by means of an external band. The principal merits of the package lie not so much in the package itself as in the fact that the package lends itself very effectively to being made by automatic machinery. Fundamentally, the principal object of the applicant Denison in designing any oleomargarine package is to design one that can be made complete with oleomargarine and coloring therein at the rate of approximately sixty a minute, because at the present time, oleomargarine packaging equipment including votators, printers, and cartoning machines, are designed to operate at: approximately that speed, and the package to be practical, that is, inexpensive, should be one which can utilize the existing votators, printers, and cartoning equipment at the speed of operation for which they are designed.

This speed almost necessitates the employment of a continuously moving film during the. wrap-' ping operation. The applicant Denison has from 4 machine suggested in the application filed September 15, 1947.

In December, applicants conceived the idea of utilizing a coloring berry fixed to the film and in direct engagement with the oleomargarine. This invention is covered in application Serial No. 794,154, filed December 27, 1947, now abandoned, and it will be noted in Fig. 4 of that application, that the stations at 44 and 46 are greatly simplified as compared with the stations illustrated in- Fig. 2 of applicationserial No, 774,013.

The present invention has all of the advantages from a standpoint of machine design attainable from the package illustrated in Serial No. 794,154, and it has the additional advantage of lending 'itself readily to quick andpositive assembly of the coloring berry to the inside wall of the package. Afiixing the berry to the inside wall of the package by an adhesive as proposed in Serial No. 794,154, has created the problem of drying the adhesive quickly before the berry comes into contact with the print of oleomargarine. Inasmuch as the lapse of time until the berry engages the oleomargarine will be only three or four seconds, there is definite danger that the berry maybe dislocated. Heat sealing the berry to the film has also presented some difiicult problems from the standpoint of time required. Moreover, successfully heat sealing the berry to the film involves utilizing a particular kind of wall for the berry, which will make unavailable the berries now on the market.

' With the foregoing objects and considerations in mind, applicants illustrate their invention in the drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a sealed package of oleomargarinewith'the berry inside a wall bubble;

Fig. 2 is asectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, but out of carton;

Fig.3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing the shape of the berry after it has been broken and the coloring material dropped onto the oleomargarine;

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 illustrate respectively a rubber ring, and two metal or plastic clips Fig. 7 is a schematic illustration of the method of making applicants package Fig. 8 is a schematic enlargement of the means for forming a bubble in the film;

Fig. 9 is an enlargement of the area confined by the dotted lines at station 56 in Fig. 7, and illustrates the position of the berry at that point;

Fig. 10 is a detailed view of the ring positioning mechanism employed at station 54 of Fig. 7; and,

Fig. 11 is a second embodiment of the invention illustrating a smaller bubble with completely closed neck and powdered or paste form coloring material therein.

Continuing to refer to the drawings, numeral Ill identifies a wrapped print of oleomargarine 12, the wrapper being formed of any one of the plastic films such as Vinylite or Pliofilm now on the market. This wrapperis identical with the wrapper illustrated in the copending applications and has a longitudinal heat seal [4 along the bottom and end transverse heat seals l5 and I8. Centrally of the top of the wrapper is an upwardly directed bubble 20 formed in the film wall. Within the bubble 20 is a standard coloring berry 22 which is held in the bubble by means of a rubber band orring .24,

The berry 22 .is slightly compressible and various substitutes for the rubber band have been tried. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the rubber ring 24. Applicants have experimented with rigid metal rings having inside diameters slightly less than the outside diameter of the berry 22'.

ble and berry is possible .but the chances f breaking the berry, particularly in the course of machine assembly, is definitely greater than the chances of breaking a berry when a rubber band is used. In Fig. 5, there is illustrated .a spring clip 26 which may be made of metal or plastic. In Fig. 6, a steel spring clip 28 is-illustrated which has fingergr-ips3ll and 32. Thesehave both been used and they hold the berry in the bubble very effectively. Either of these clips, as will be 'explai-nedhereinafter, lend themselves very-well to mechanization, but oleomargarine manufacturers do not like .to include inside the package anything made :Ofmetal. I Consequently, the-rubber rin 24 is preferred. It must be sufiiciently elastic so that its inside diameter.

will -not--only clear the bubble itself but 7 the walls of a metal mandrel upon which they will bemounted and successively fed into operable position, as will hereinafter be explained.

When applicantdpackage is positionedin a carton, referring to Fig. ,2,-.-the carton wall, identified by the numeral :34, presses the bubble and rubber ring assembly into theoleomargar-ine, as illustrated in Fig. v2. 'When the user is ready to mix, she draws .out berry and squeezes it. If she applies her fingers as illustrated in Fig. 3, the pressure onthe fluidin the berry is downwardly alongthe arrow 3.6. Normally, the berry breaks some place in the area between the points 38 and AllHwhich-is the opening of the base of thebubbleand which is the point where the berry is actually in contact with the oleomargarine. However, experiments demonstrate that even if the berry breaks .atsome point Sl-lCh'wfi/S 62. in Fig. 2, the fluid promptly escapes down between the .hullof the berry and the inside of the bubble into the =oleomargarine container. There is no real strain on the walls of the hubble. All isreleased the moment the hull of the berry breaks. great deal weaker-than the Vinylite wall of the bubble.

.It should .also be borne in m-ind that the standard commercial berry is formed -.of two hemispheres which aresealed together along their .edgesp-and that the pointuof joinderis slightly weaker than the hullitself. Ifpossible, applicants .intend to position-this seal line so that .a portionof .it intercepts the base of the bubble as illustrated by the dotted lines -44 in Fig.2. This will always insure breaking of the berry .at thebase of-the bubble and will direct the coloring into .the oleomargarine. However, as a practical matter, it may be difficult to so position the .berry. Whether it is so positioned or not, howeveixif the wall of the bubbleis maintainedatastrength greater than thatofthe berry hull, there will .be no danger of the coloring matter breaking through the bubble wall onto the. userslhands.

Thehullwof the berry is a- Positioning such a rin :over thebuba bubble.

tion 56, a side-wrapping station 58, a longituwdinalsealing station 613, a transverse sealing sta- IiOIYGZ, a transverse cutting station 64, a shaping station 66, and a ,cartoning station 68. Of :these steps, only 5'0; '52, and 54 are new in this development. At station 50, a shaping punch 10 presses downwardly against the film to form At present, this is done by cold flowing the film which is positioned between two flat surfaces 12 and 14, see Fig. 8, havin aligned holes 75 and I8 therethrough. The punch is not heated in any way, but is rapidly rotated about its vertical axis, first in a clockwise direction and then in a counterclockwise direction. It is not necessary to have a shape complementary to the punch for assisting in the forming. The films stretch within certain limits, and a film of an inch in thickness, which applicants are presently using, can be stretched to form a bubble which will accommodate a standard berry which is approximately of an inch in diameter without weakening the walls of the bubble sufiiciently so that on squeezing they will break.

Referring to Fig. 7, when the machine is at normal speed, the Vinylite strip will move from station to station at the rate of about one stationpersecond. This cold flowing of the bubble into the film requires better than a second so that ifthe "film is continuously moved, it may be necessary to havea moving station 58 move through several stations. However, applicants have experimented with heat-created bubbles, eitherby heating the punch 10 in Fig. 7 or heating the film, and find that the bubble can be more quickly created under heat conditions.

This, of course, complicates the machine a bit but very likely will be used because the bubble can be created more rapidly and a more uniform thickness in its side walls obtained. If the bubble is created by the ,cold flowing process, the

endof the punch 10 will probably be lubricated.

There is a tendency for the bubble wall to adhere to a non-lubricated punch such as it, and be drawn upwardly through the holes '16 and 1B in Fig. 8 upon withdrawal of the punch. This requires either an additional step of returning the bubbleto its lower position or so handling the berry at the time of deposit at station 52 that it pushes the bubble back down into 'its original position. If the bubble is in the lower position illustrated in Fig. 9, at the time the berry is to bedeposited, the mechanization of the berry-depositing is exceedingly simple. The berry drops by gravity into the bubble and stays there.

The method of applying any one of theholding rings or clips illustrated in Figs. 4 to 6, is illustrated in Fig. 10. Here a mandrel v80, partly cut away for illustration is loaded with rings 2 The mandrel is movable toward and away from the film and is brought over the bubble as illustrated in Fig. 10. A ring 24 is then pushed off the end of the mandrel so as to contract over the neck. of the bubble 20 tooccupy the position shown in either Fig. 9 or Fig. 2. The structure illustrated at Fig. 10 is the structure suggested in Fig. 7.

The great advantage of this method of making oleo-margarine packages with partially segregated berry lies not only in the comparative ease of mechanization of the stations 50, 52 and 54 of Fig. 7, but in the fact that it eliminates difficult registry problems between the print of oleomargarine and the coloring at or after the transverse heat-sealing station such as 62. An oleomargarine print may slip a little bit during moveberry bubble. If there is any slipping of the print on the film surface as the print progresses through the wrapping and sealing stages, the slippage will not equal one-half the length of the print. On the contrary, it will be comparatively small and if the berry in the finished package is slightly off center, the packages may, nevertheless, be, moved into the trade and reopening and rewrapping avoided. This same advantage would be available in a machine for marketing the package disclosed in application Serial No. 794,154.

In using the package herein disclosed, it is contemplated that the housewife will not remove the rubber ring or metal clip during the kneading. Inasmuch as the kneading is done by hands, it is believed that the rubber clip is far better as it will not interfere with kneading as either of the clips illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 may.

It is likely that the wrapped package of oleomargarine will be turned over before it is introduced to the cartoning machine so that the berry will be uppermost and will constitute the top of the package. It is desirable that when a housewife opens a Western-type flat carton,-which opens at one of the large sides, that she see the berry in position on the inner sealed package.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the berry bubble and ring have been simply pressed into the oleomargarine. It may be found desirable to put a depression in the print when the print is formed. This will eliminate a pressing station between the longitudinal heat-sealing station 60 and the transverse heat-sealing station 62. The machine uses a pair of spaced belts to move the film horizontally, the belts being spaced by a distance sufficient to permit the bubble to extend below them. If a depression is previously formed in the print, the twin belt conveyor will end some place adjacent to the longitudinal heat-sealing station and the film and prints will be carried on by a single belt which will have the effect of pressing the berry bubble and ring into the recess of the print.

In using this package, it is thought likely that the housewife will be instructed to break the berry and allow its contents to drip into the oleomargarine at the time that she removes it from the refrigerator preparatory to letting it stand an hour or two in order for the oleomargarine to soften. The liquid will have time to permeate the adjacent oleomargarine and there will be less likelihood of coloring gathering on the inside of the film adjacent to the bubble which will have to be worked out by kneading.

Applicants considered forming the bubble separately by molding it and positioning a berry therein. The bubble would have at its neck a flange. The Vinylite would be punctured with a hole and the flange of the bubble heat-sealed around the hole. This would accomplish the object equally well and would provide a bubble ball of strength equal to that of the wrapper itself. However, the assembling of this type of bubble with the wrapper would involve an additional heat sealing step and it would involve a separate machine for making the bubbles and assembling the berries therein.

A second embodiment of the package is illustrated in Fig. 11. Here the wrapper wall 82 has had formed in it a comparatively small bubble 84. This bubble is filled with either powdered coloring material or coloring material in paste form. Around the neck of the bubble is a rubber ring 86 which is sufficiently small so as to completely close the opening. In experimenting with coloring material, applicant Denison has found that the coloring powder used in standard oleomargarine packages occupies a volumetric space many times less than that occupied by a coloring berry. The applicant Denison has also had supplied to him by coloring manufacturers a paste in Which the coloring is so concentrated that it occupies a volume approximately equal to that of 4; inch of the lead of an ordinary pencil. If a satisfactory method of depositing either the powder or the paste in the bubble at station 52 of Fig. 7 can be devised, the package suggested in Fig. 11 has great possibilities. In the first place, the wall of the bubble will be substantiallyas strong as the wall of the wrapper. It is so small that during lmeading, its mouth can be left open after being freed of the coloring material without interfering with the kneading by coloring oleomargarine therein. In this embodiment of the invention, the housewife will remove the retaining ring 86 before kneading.

In order to make certain that the coloring material in the small bubble in the second embodiment of the invention does not escape into the oleomargarine package while in transit, or

conversely, the oleomargarine does not seep into the bubble, a small deposit of gelatine 88, see Fig. 11, is positioned over the squeezed opening.

One advantage of the second embodiment of the invention resides in the fact that the user, after removing the contraetible, elastic band, whether it be a. closed band as in Fig. 4 or the clips of Figs. 5 and 6, can push the bubble inside the sealed envelope and during kneading, it will stay there so that the coloringmaterial can be worked completely free of the inside surface of the bubble.

The applicant Denison has also experimented with making a weak heat seal at the neck of the bubble. be through the folds of the wrapping material at the neck. As a hand operation, this has been done but it may not be feasible to do it in a machine where the exact shape of the folds in the neck probably cannot be controlled. In this type of package, the housewife simply presses the coloring material inwardly and this action breaks open the weak heat seals between the folds of the neck of the bubble.

When this is done, the heat sealing must aving this deseriba eur intehtieri;what we claim is 1. -A package foi" holding-separatetwomaterials until received by a user corriprising an envelope made of stretchable, inelastie' wall's an outwardly" directcl' bubble integrally forn'i d of thinner wall material in'one-"of 'said walls, one material positioned inside'theenvelo'pe, asecond material posi tioned inside the bubbleiand a constricting 'elementaround'that portion -of the-outside of the bubble'adjacent 'the "package-- wall against the material.

2. A package for holdi'r'ig separate two materialsuntil received by a "user comprisingan envelope made of stretchable; inelastic walls, an'

outwardly directed bubble integrally formed of thinner wall material in one' of -said walls, one 5 material positioned inside the envelope, a second material 5 positioned inside the bubble, and an elastic; contract'abl'e band around the Outside baseo'fthe bubble."

3. An oleomarg'arine package 'comprisin'g a wrapper 'of'sturdy', fleXible; stretchable material- I completely sealed around a charge of oleomargarine; an outwardly directed bubble integrally" forme'd'of thinner 'wall'material in one of the side walls or thewrapp'er', coloring material positioned within saidbubble, and an elongated flexible member drawn" around the outside of the neck of thebubble'for'constricting 'its neck.

4. The package ofclaim 3 wherein the coloring material'is a coloring berry;

5. Thepackage'of c1aim3 wherein'the holding element is an elastic, contractable band.

6. The'packageof claim 3 wherein the holding I element is an elastic rubber -ring.'

'7. An 'oleomargarin'e "package "comprising a wrapperpf' sturdy, flexible heat-scalable material completely sealed around a charge of oleomargarine, an 'outwa'rdly directed bubble in the wall of the -p'ackage; a chargeof coloring 'materialin 1 the bubble; and *a weak heat seal between the inside walls'of the base of the bubble tor holding P the coloring charge -therein.-

8. The-method-of wrapping two materialswhich are to be held separate for a selectedtime comprising the steps of forming a recess in a wall of the wrappenof positioning one materialin therecessof positioning a band around the neck of the recess to hold the material therein,

and of wrapping the recess side of the wrapper around the other material.

9. The method of wrappingtwo materials Whichare to be held separate for a selected'time Within a wrapper made of stretchable material which comprises the steps of drawing a bubble in awall of the wrapper, 'of positioning one material' in the bubble, of positioning an elastic, contractable band around the neck of the bubble to hold thematerial therein, and of wrapping that side of the wrapper which has the open side of thebubble around the other material.

10. The method of wrapping two materials which are to be held separate for a selected time within a sealed wrapper made of heatscalable material which comprises the steps of forming'a recess in a wall of the wrapper, of

positioning 'onematerial in the'recess, of posi-' tioninga band around the base of the wall forming the recess" to hold the material therein, of wrapping'the recess'sideof the wrapper around the lother material, and of heat sealing the edges of thewra'ppert'o each other to form a sealed envelope.

11. The method of packagingtwo" materials" which areto beheld eparate' f s l af ditiniji comprising the steps of moving a stripof sheet material along a selected path, of forming re cesses in the strip atiintervals, of "depositing a selected quantity of one material in 'eacli' recess',* of positioning a band around the outside wall of the'base of each recess 'to hold th m i therein'fof depositing a charge-of the second ma terial on the strip adjacent each recess, of wrapping the edges 'of the strip over "the charges or the second material into engagement with each other to form a tube with the cha'rgesspac'ed" therein, of joining'said edgesitogethe'r," and of severing the tube betweenthe charges to form separate packages.

12. The methodof packaging two"materials* which are to be heldseparate for a selected time comprising the steps of'inoving a strip of stretch-l able sheet material alcng a selected path, of

drawing 'bubbles'in the strip atintervals', of'de-'- positing a selected quantity of one material in each bubble,'*of positioning a band around the" outside wall of the base -of each bubble to hold the material therein, of'depositing'a charge of the second material on" the strip adjacent ecah' bubble, of wrapping-the edges'of the strip over' the charges of the second ma'terialinto' engagementwith each other toform a tube'with the charges spaced thereinfof' joining'said edges together; andof severingthe tube" between the charges to form separate packages;

13. The-methodof packaging 'twomaterials which are to be held-separate for a selected time comprising the steps of moving a strip of heat scalable material along a selected path, of forming recesses in the strip at intervals, of deposit ing a selected quantitypf one material-in each recess, of positioning a band around the outsidewall of the base of each recess to hold the material therein, of depositing a charge of the sec-' ondmaterial on the strip adjacent each recess,

of wrapping the edges of the strip over the charges of theseco'nd material'into engagement with each other to form a tube with the charges spaced therein,"of joining said edges together,

of transversely sealing the tube between the charges, and of severing the tube at the transverse heat seals to form separate packages.

14. The method of packaging oleomargine and coloring material in'a sealed envelope com-' the strip over the prints into engagement with each'other to form a' tube with the printsspaced therein, of transversely sealing the tube between the'prints, and of severing the tube-at the transverse seals to formseparate packages 15 -Th e method ofpackaging oleomargarine and' coloring materialin a sealedenvelope compris'irigthe steps'of moving a strip of heat-sealable} sheet material along a path, of "drawing bubbles insaid strip at intervals, of depositing a coloring berry'in each bubble, of positioning a band around the neck of each'bubb'le to hold the'coloring berry therein,-of depositing a print of oleomargarine on the strip adjacent each 7 bubble, of wrapping'the edges of the strip over the prints into engagement with each'pther to 1 form a tube with the prints spaced therein, or

transversely sealing the tube between the prints, and of severing the tube at the transverse seals to form separate packages.

WILLIAM E. DENISON. WILF'RED S. STONE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

Number UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date English Nov. 13, 1923 Number 

15. THE METHOD OF PACKAGING OLEOMARGARINE AND COLORING MATERIAL IN A SEALED ENVELOPE COMPRISING THE STEPS OF MOVING A STRIP OF HEAT-SEALABLE, SHEET MATERIAL ALONG A PATH, OF DRAWING BUBBLES IN SAID STRIP AT INTERVALS, OF DEPOSITING A COLORING BERRY IN EACH BUBBLE, OF POSITIONING A BAND AROUND THE NECK OF EACH BUBBLE TO HOLD THE COLORING BERRY THEREIN, OF DEPOSITING A PRINT OF OLEOMARGARINE ON THE STRIP ADJACENT EACH BUBBLE, OF WRAPPING THE EDGES OF THE STRIP OVER THE PRINTS INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH EACH OTHER TO FORM A TUBE WITH THE PRINTS SPACED THEREIN, OF TRANSVERSELY SEALING THE TUBE BETWEEN THE PRINTS, AND OF SEVERING THE TUBE AT THE TRANSVERSE SEALS TO FORM SEPARATE PACKAGES. 